Connecting Consumers to Brands ™
U.S.
Harness the Power of Professional Consumers
With more than one third of all professionals on the planet on LinkedIn, there is a ripe opportunity for consumer brands to leverage the buying power of professionals on our platform. As many brands on LinkedIn already know—professionals are consumers, too, and some of the most influential are on LinkedIn. These professional consumers are the most sought after audiences in the world and globally you can reach over 300 million potential brand advocates. To help consumer marketers effectively reach this audience, we conducted this research to understand who they are, why they are so valuable, and what content is most relevant to them.
Understanding professional consumers on LinkedIn
Respondent ages: 18 - 45
Respondent seniority: Manager and below
50% / 50% Gender split
Country Sample Size
United States 608
Canada 307
Brazil 308
United Kingdom 311
Australia 307
We found that professional consumers on LinkedIn are…
In an aspirational mindset Opportunity for marketers to align their brands with members’ professional success
A premium quality audience Brand loyal, not price sensitive, with more buying power than other social platforms
Influenced by their professional networks Opinions from their professional peers impact personal buying decisions
A unique audience from other online publications More unique visitors with little duplication compared to other business and social sites
A premium quality audience
A prime audience for high-consideration consumer products
of LinkedIn members 18-45 make household decisions
92%
They are also brand advocates willing to pay more
“When I find a brand I like, I stick to it”
“I’m typically willing to pay more for high-quality items”
86% 78%
Quality and benefits are more important than price
% most important customer purchase factor
Fulfills my needs
Quality
Price
Trust it will perform as advertised
Is new & different
45%
28%
14%
9%
3%
LinkedIn professionals have more buying power than other social platforms
251
185 160
128 111
LinkedIn Pinterest Twitter Facebook Tumblr
comScore Buying Power Index 2013, Data. US only.
U.S. Buying Power Index
In an aspirational mindset
Opportunity for marketers to align their brands with members’ professional success in a trusted environment
Professional success drives their large purchases
76% 66% 58% Consider a vacation Consider a new car Reward themselves
LinkedIn allows brands visibility around content that consumers feel is worthy of their time and innovative
Worth My Time
Wastes My Time
Less Innovative More Innovative
Size of circle indicates usage
Influenced by their professional networks
Shared content among peers on LinkedIn impact personal purchase decisions
Now more than ever, LinkedIn members influence purchase decisions
1in4 25% “My LinkedIn Network is sharing more
information about consumer brands than this time last year”
“I seek out product information from my LinkedIn Network for personal purchases”
Now more than ever, LinkedIn members influence purchase decisions
51% “Trust information about consumer products that you see on LinkedIn”
58% “If someone on LinkedIn shared an
update about a new product, I would be more interested in the product”
2x more likely to trust the information provided by LinkedIn than other social networks and this drives purchases
51% 23%
14%
% that trust the information from listed publishers*
% personal purchases are influenced by the information published by these sources*
31% 25%
20%
* Top 2 box
A unique audience
Reach a distinct audience from other publishing platforms
LinkedIn reaches more professional consumers than most other key business sites
77% of LinkedIn
users do not Visit NY Times.com
82% of LinkedIn users
do not visit Forbes.com
85% of LinkedIn users
do not visit WSJ.com
89% of LinkedIn users
do not visit Cnet.com
13.7M Unique Monthly
Visitors
8.8M Unique Monthly
Visitors
6.9M Unique Monthly
Visitors
9.9M Unique Monthly
Visitors
Apr’14 ComScore Cross Visitation data for the US. Base: 18-44 yr. olds
2.1M
2.8M 3.5M
4.5M
19.2M Unique Monthly Visitors
LinkedIn also reaches a unique audience among social media sites
13% of LinkedIn
users do not Visit Facebook
58% of LinkedIn users
do not visit Google+
83% of LinkedIn users
do not visit Pinterest
66.9M Unique Monthly
Visitors
23.4M Unique Monthly
Visitors
13.8M Unique Monthly
Visitors
20.3M Unique Monthly
Visitors
19.2M Unique Monthly Visitors
7.8M
3.3M 8M
16.7M
59% of LinkedIn users
do not visit Twitter
Apr’14 ComScore Cross Visitation data for the US. Base: 18-44 yr. olds
Consumers view LinkedIn as one of the most innovative publishers with increasing quality
2.5x More likely to be called innovative than NYT, WSJ or New Yorker
2x More likely to have improving quality
than any other publisher
Over
So what does this mean for marketers?
Engage a prime audience of influential consumers with relevant content on LinkedIn
?
Why should consumer brands promote content on LinkedIn?
47% Read news or information from consumer brands on LinkedIn at least once a month
All Industries Auto CPG Retail Travel
Upcoming innovations from the company 59% 59% 60% 60% 58%
News about the company 55% 56% 55% 64% 45%
News articles about the industry 54% 55% 59% 54% 49%
Information about new products or services 50% 50% 53% 50% 49%
General company information 46% 50% 47% 50% 39%
Promotions and special offers 44% 37% 37% 45% 56%
Over half the LinkedIn audience is looking for news, information & innovations from consumer brands
Across all industries, LinkedIn’s youngest members are demanding the most content. Especially about innovation.
Topics of Interest Across ALL INDUSTRIES Male Female 18 - 24 Years Old
25 - 34 Years Old
35 - 45 Years Old
Upcoming innovations from the company 63% 55% 68% 55% 54%
News about the company 56% 54% 58% 56% 51%
News articles about the industry 55% 53% 53% 59% 51%
Information about new products or services 53% 48% 53% 45% 53%
General company information 46% 47% 50% 50% 39%
Promotions and special offers 45% 42% 46% 40% 45%
Commentary from industry experts 48% 31% 46% 42% 43%
How a product or service can improve your life 40% 39% 46% 34% 39%
Updates on company social responsibility 34% 37% 40% 36% 30%
Ways the company is considering the environment 33% 38% 42% 37% 28%
Invitation to participate in company sponsored groups/polls 31% 37% 37% 26% 33%
In summary, consumer marketers on LinkedIn can...
Align their brands with members’ professional successes
Reach a prime audience of high-quality brand advocates
Leverage an innovative platform for consumer product launches
Raise consumer brand awareness in a trusted environment
Be accurate Be helpful Be everywhere
26
Build relationships with professional consumers on LinkedIn in 3 ways:
To learn more, contact us at http://lnkd.in/contact
™
Top Related